eat, but you must take it in a decent way, an' not go to cuttin'
up any such shines as that."
And after giving this command--which, by-the-way, was obeyed just about
as well as it was understood--Toby devoted his time to his breakfast,
and he reduced the amount of eatables very considerably before he had
finished.
Toby cleared off his table by gathering the food together and putting it
back into the paper as well as possible, and then he sat down to think
over the situation, and to decide what he had better do.
He felt rather nervous about venturing out when it was possible for Mr.
Lord or Mr. Castle to get hold of him again; and as the weather was yet
warm during the night, his camping-place everything that could be
desired, and the stock of food likely to hold out, he concluded that he
had better remain there for two days at least, and then he would be
reasonably sure that if either of the men whom he so dreaded to see had
remained behind for the purpose of catching him, he would have got tired
out and gone on.
This point decided upon, the next was to try to fix up something soft
for a bed. He had his pocket-knife with him, and in his little valley
were pine and hemlock trees in abundance. From the tips of their
branches he knew that he could make a bed as soft and fragrant as any
that could be thought of, and he set to work at once, while Mr. Stubbs
continued his antics above his head.
After about two hours' steady work he had cut enough of the tender
branches to make himself a bed into which he and the monkey could burrow
and sleep as comfortably as if they were in the softest bed in Uncle
Daniel's house.
When Toby first began to cut the boughs he had an idea that he might
possibly make some sort of a hut; but the two hours' work had blistered
his hands, and he was perfectly ready to sit down and rest, without the
slightest desire for any other kind of a hut than that formed by the
trees themselves.
Toby imagined that in that beautiful place he could, with the monkey,
stay contented for any number of days; but after he had rested a time,
played with his pet a little, and eaten just a trifle more of the lunch,
the time passed so slowly that he soon made up his mind to run the risk
of meeting Mr. Lord or Mr. Castle again by going out of the woods the
first thing the next morning.
Very many times before the sun set that day was Toby tempted to run the
risk that night, for the sake of the change, if n
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